File with pipe separators with empty entries; convert to tab delimiter with "<blank>" between

Question

Problem

I was provided with a line-delimited text file containing the file names and some indexed information from each file. My goal is to make this tab delimited file. However , I want to know where the blank entries are. This will be done, for example. with lorem||dolorbecomes lorem '\t' <empty> '\t' dolor.

Let me give you a couple more examples of what I have been given and what you need:

Example with multiple lines: (NB Each line has the same number of entries.)

Given:

||dolor|sit
amet,||adipiscing|
sed|do|eiusmod|tempor

Desired:

<empty> '\t' <empty> '\t' dolor '\t' sit '\n'
amet, '\t' <empty> '\t' adipiscing '\t' <empty> '\n'
sed '\t' do '\t' eiusmod '\t' tempor '\n'

Blank entries at the beginning and end.

Given:

|ut|labore||dolore||

Desired:

<empty> '\t' ut '\t' labore '/t' <empty> '\t' dolore '\t' <empty> '\t' <empty>

(I don't need spaces, I just thought it would be easier to read the format I want.)

. , , 1 36 ( 0 37 .)

sed, awk, grep, tr .. , . A perl python script ( , ) .

, , ^{1 2} .

, . sed ( ): ref. ; (, , <empty> ): ref. ; : ref ;

$ uname -a
CYGWIN_NT-10.0 A-1052207 2.5.2(0.297/5/3) 2016-06-23 14:29 x86_64 Cygwin
$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.3.42(4)-release (x86_64-unknown-cygwin) ...
$

Cygwin Windows 10 ( .)

---

Edit1

, .

, , :

( , , , enter, , enter .. /, > , Enter .)

$ cat > myfile.txt<<EOF
> ||foo|||bar||
> EOF

$ <**command-to-be-used**> myfile.txt | cat -A
<empty>^I<empty>^Ifoo^I<empty>^I<empty>^Ibar^I<empty>^I<empty>$

^I bash a '\t'. , , , , <empty> , labore (. ). , ( @Neil_McGuigan @Ed_Morton) '\t' labore, <empty>. , . .

@Neil_McGuigan. : " ", , \ .

$ echo "||lorem|ipsum||sit|amet,||||eiusmod|tempor|||labore|" | 
  awk '
       {
         $1=$1; n_empty=0; 
         for(i=1; i<=NF; i++) 
         { 
           if($i=="") {$i="<empty>"; n_empty++;}
         }; 
         print
       }
       END {print n_empty" entries are empty" | "cat 1>&2";}
      ' FS='|' OFS=$'\t'
   | cat -A

:

<empty>^I<empty>^Ilorem^Iipsum^I<empty>^Isit^Iamet,^I<empty>^I<empty>^I<empty>^Ieiusmod^Itempor^I<empty>^I<empty>^Ilabore^I<empty>$
9 entries are empty

, , , :

<empty>^I<empty>^Ilorem^Iipsum^I<empty>^Isit^Iamet,^I<empty>^I<empty>^I<empty>^Ieiusmod^Itempor^I<empty>^I<empty>^Ilabore^I<empty>$ 9 entries are empty

( , , stderr, , .)

, , .

---

@Neil_McGuigan @Ed_Morton, , . :

$ awk '{$1=$1; n_empty=0; for(i=1; i<=NF; i++) {if($i=="") {$i="<empty>"; n_empty++;}}; print;} END {print n_empty" entries are empty" | "cat 1>&2";}' FS='|' OFS=$'\t' file_pipe-delim.txt > file_tab-delim.txt

$

, , :

$ awk '{$1=$1; for(i=1; i<NF; i++){ if($(i)=="")$(i)="<empty>" }; print}'
  FS='|' OFS=$'\t' file_pipe-delim.txt | sed 's/\t$/\t<empty>/g' > 
  file_tab-delim.txt

$

, , :

( , , , enter, , enter .. /, > , Enter .)

$ cat > file_pipe-delim.txt<<EOF
> ||dolor|sit
> amet,||adipiscing|
> sed|do|eiusmod|tempor
> |||
> |aliqua.|Ut|
> EOF

$ awk '{$1=$1; n_empty=0; for(i=1; i<=NF; i++) 
{if($i=="") {$i="<empty>"; n_empty++;}}; print;} END 
{print n_empty" entries are empty" | "cat 1>&2";}' 
FS='|' OFS=$'\t' file_pipe-delim.txt > file_tab-delim.txt


$ cat -A file_tab-delim.txt
<empty>^I<empty>^Idolor^Isit$
amet,^I<empty>^Iadipiscing^I<empty>$
sed^Ido^Ieiusmod^Itempor$
<empty>^I<empty>^I<empty>^I<empty>$
<empty>^Ialiqua.^IUt^I<empty>$

$

, , . :

$ echo "||lorem|ipsum||sit|amet,||||eiusmod|tempor|||labore|" | awk '{$1=$1; n_empty=0; for(i=1; i<=NF; i++) {if($i=="") {$i="<empty>"; n_empty++;}}; print;} END {print n_empty" entries are empty" | "cat 1>&2";}' FS='|' OFS=$'\t' | cat -A
<empty>^I<empty>^Ilorem^Iipsum^I<empty>^Isit^Iamet,^I<empty>^I<empty>^I<empty>^Ieiusmod^Itempor^I<empty>^I<empty>^Ilabore^I<empty>$
9 entries are empty

cat -A, , ^I '\t'; , " ".

$ echo "||lorem|ipsum||sit|amet,||||eiusmod|tempor|||labore|" | \ 
awk '{$1=$1; n_empty=0; for(i=1; i<=NF; i++) \
{if($i=="") {$i="<empty>"; n_empty++;}}; print;} END \
{print n_empty" entries are empty" | "cat 1>&2";}' \
FS='|' OFS=$'\t'

<empty> <empty> lorem   ipsum   <empty> sit     amet,   <empty> <empty> <empty>eiusmod  tempor  <empty> <empty> labore  <empty>
9 entries are empty

Answer 1

awk '
     {
       $1=$1; 
       for(i=1; i<NF; i++) { 
         if($i=="") { $i="<empty>"; empty++ }
       }; 
       print
     }
     END { print empty" empty" | "cat 1>&2"; }
' FS='|' OFS=$'\t'

. $1 = $1 awk "" , OutputFieldSeparator (OFS).

print empty" empty" | "cat 1>&2" "n empty" stderr. ,

Answer 2

|| → |<empty>| , , :

$ sed 's/||/|<empty>|/g; s/||/|<empty>|/g; s/|/\t/g' file
lorem   ipsum   <empty> sit     amet,   <empty> <empty> <empty> eiusmod tempor <empty>  <empty> labore

awk:

$ awk '{while(gsub(/\|\|/,"|<empty>|")); gsub(/\|/,"\t")} 1' file
lorem   ipsum   <empty> sit     amet,   <empty> <empty> <empty> eiusmod tempor <empty>  <empty> labore

'$'\t'' \t.